Thursday, February 24, 2011

So Galbi (and a feast at the Wong's)

An invitation to the Wong's for a BBQ was always going to be a great feed. And of course it was as good as ever....mmmmm love lazy days of BBQ and hanging out with friends just chilling and eating. Isn't that what it's all about?

My contribution was So Galbi, a Korean dish of BBQ beef short ribs. The first time I had this was at Charcoal Mine BBQ House. So delicious! That was years ago and it's only recently that I thought to try make it myself.

Let's start with the cut of meat. My local Korean butcher suggested this cut of rib rather than the short ribs ($18/kg). I don't even know what this cut is called. Just that it has the rib and a long thin piece of meat still attached. A must for this dish.

I also bought the short ribs as the recipe suggested this cut

Still great with this cut, but the one above is better....obviously because it has more meat. Really tender meat that has soaked up all the flavourShort ribs $15/kg

Both recipes require you to soak the meat in water. Rasa gives the explaination that because the bone is cut, there is a lot of bone dust on the meat, so therefore you need to soak it to rinse this dust off.

In Aeri's recipe, it says to soak the bones for 2 or 3 hours to get rid of the blood. Now I would have thought the blood is what gives it the flavour. So that's why I did some of my own adjusting - I just soaked the bones for my other cut of meat and left the meat hanging over the side of the bowl

Short ribs all soaked and looking very pale

Time to whizz 1 Asian pear and half an onion. Both recipes say to use an Asian pear. I couldn't find any at the time so changed it to 2 kiwi fruit instead (did some research and this was a good subsitute)

Pour the pear & onion mixture over the meat, mix and leave sit while you make the marinade sauce (Aeri says this will take away the strong meat flavour and sweetens it)

Now to make the marinade sauce

My choice of cooking wine and soy sauce. I didn't know what soup soy sauce was so went with a light soy sauce and added a cup of water as well

Pour the marinade over the meat and leave in the fridge overnight

These are best cooked over a charcoal BBQ

Bren's altered recipe:

1.5kg beef ribs

2 kiwi fruits

1/2 onion

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 cup water

2 tablespoons cooking wine

1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon seasame oil

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 tablespoon shallots (extra for serving)

toasted sesame seeds (optional) Also for serving

Method1. Soak ribs in water for about 2 hours in the fridge. Pour the water out and rinse the ribs with clean water.

2. Whizz the kiwi and onion, mix this into the ribs and set aside while you make the marinade sauce.

3. Place the soy sauce, water, cooking wine, garlic, ginger, sugar, honey, seasame oil, pepper and shallots in another bowl and whisk together till the sugar dissolves. Pour this over the ribs and mix well. Cover with glad wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight or at least an hour (turning the ribs once in a while when you can).

4. Heat grill and cook for around 5mins on each side

NB: I think it would be best cooked over a charcoal BBQ. But the bonus of cooking it in a pan is you could spoon some of sauce into the pan and really give it that extra flavour and it's not as dry either.

So what else did we get to enjoy?

Prem's Lentil, Beetroot and Fetta Salad

Amra's Egg and Potato Salad

Duong's Vegetable Quiche

Prem's Avocado and mixed Greens Salad

Amra's Tomato and Ricotta Pasta

Vin's Fruit Punch

Prem's Chicken Wings

Chhay's Salted Caramel Popcorn Macaron

OMG...

Chhay's Strawberries and Cream Macaron

Not one....but 2 types of macarons!

Amra's sheet cake

Such a fabulous day of eating. And we got to take home food later and have leftovers too. Love it! Thanks guys!